Denver Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon

The Denver Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon has come and gone. This was my first half marathon. I can say with great pride that Todd and I kicked its butt. When we were first discussing doing the run we decided that our goal would be to keep a 10 minute mile. If we kept that pace, after 13.1 miles our time would be just over 2 hr. & 10 min. I thought I could be happy with that especially since it was my first half marathon. As the weeks ticked by we talked some more about our goal and decided to change it. We thought a half marathon in 2 hrs or less would be a better, more challenging goal. The day was finally upon us so off we went to Denver to run.

Here's a brief summary of how it went ...

The morning started off very cold, the temperature at start time was below 50 degrees. Once we got to the race site we stood in line at the port-a-potties for at least 20 minutes. Turns out while we were waiting the race officially began ... whoops. Lucky for us they gave every runner a device that clocked each person individually. It started my time as I crossed the start line and ended when I crossed the finish line. We ended up starting the race about 8 minutes late, but there were still many people starting behind us. Once we got started we kept a 9 minute pace. For some reason (I'm beginning to think its due to the cold weather) around 1.5 miles I got a stitch in my side. I think its kind of crazy that I got one that early in the race, but eventually it went away. Miles 2 through 7 came and went, they were all pretty uneventful in my opinion with the exception of seeing some of our friends Mike Schroeder and Ryan Bach (they were there for moral support for their girlfriends). About mile 8 we had slowed the pace down to about 9:20/mile. My knee was killing me to put it mildly. It was about that time that I was starting to get thoughts that I might not be able to run the whole thing. Lucky for me, Todd wouldn't let me quit. Around mile 11 all we had left was downhill for the remainder which Todd informed me of, which didn't really make me any happier. At that time per Todd's suggestion I started listening to my iPOD - his logic is I run faster when I listen to music. He was right, we picked up the pace slightly. Mile 12 came next and for some reason my knee was no longer in pain instead I was a getting pretty light headed. I think it was due to my electrolytes being out of whack from all the running. Whether that was the reason or not, I only had 1.1 miles left and I had to finish!! Once we could see the finish line we started to sprint, grabbed each others hand, and finally crossed the finish line together. As soon as I stopped running my knee was in more pain than at any other time during that race - I can't even put words to it. But, thankfully it was over. We each received a medal, got a bunch of free snacks, and met up with some other friends that were running it. By the time we were leaving the race to head back to the car we found out our official race time. We didn't end up beating our 2nd goal, but we were pretty dang close ... we finished at .... (drumroll please) .....

2:00:17

I can honestly say that I'm happy with that time and I think Todd is too.

Todd and I

Todd, Me, and TJ

I can now say that I've run a half marathon!! I don't think I ever will again, but who cares. The first one is the only one that matters. Todd on the other hand has started training for a full marathon, the New Orleans Rock'n'Roll in February. I think he's crazy.

short stack & syrup

This weekend I competed in the Muddy Buddy in Boulder, CO. I had an absolute blast, but it was super exhausting! My buddy for the race was Sue Engels. Our team name was short stack & syrup. We didn't have any thoughts on what to do for a costume so on Friday before the race we went to Wal-Mart. As we started down the craft aisle we came up with an idea ... we were going to TIE-DYE our shirts. We also decided that Jackson (Sue's husband) to draw on our shirts - a short stack of pancakes on mine & a syrup bottle on Sue's. We bought some gold glitter shirt paint to use for whatever. After we got done at Wal-Mart we went back to Sue & Jackson's house, had some dinner, and then got down to business. It all started with Jackson drawing on our shirts. After the shirt designs were finished we started to tie-dye. The next morning we unveiled our t-shirt designs. They were awesome!!!! Once they were washed & dried Sue got to work on painting with the gold glitter. Later that day we put our names on the back. Here's the final product ....

You have to admit, they are pretty awesome!

Sue & I weren't alone in doing the Muddy Buddy, we had a couple of friends participating too. Sarah & Colleen were partners as well as TJ & Abbi. TJ & Colleen had both already done it before, so the rest of were newbies. We had a good idea of what to expect, but that definitely didn't stop the nerves!!

Here's what happens during the Muddy Buddy .... according to me ....

They put you in categories based on you & your buddies' combined ages. Sue is 29 & I'm 27, together we are 56. From there they have larger divisions based on combined age. We were in the grouping 56 to 65. Then, they have it divided into males, females, and co-ed. Each different division is assigned to a particular wave. I believe were 7 waves total. We were in wave 3 along with Coed 96 & Over and Female 76-85. Everyone lines up according to their wave with bikers in front and runners behind. Bikers are always released first within their wave with the runners released 60 to 90 seconds later. Sue started the race as our biker.

Sarah & I were waiting for our turn to start running.

Once they said go, Sarah & I were off running the first leg - 1.3 miles. At the end of that there was a high climbing wall. This was a really easy wall to get over because it had hand/foot grips. Once done with the high wall we switched - Sue starts running, I took the bike. This leg was 1.1 miles long. From the get go, this leg was a slight incline. Then to make matters worse, there was a pretty steep slope that was about 15 ft high that I had to run up with the bike. When I started making my way up my foot slipped and I fell, along with the bike. Once I got back up (with the bike) I tried it again. Failed attempt again. I don't know if it was too steep or the lack of traction on my shoe. Either way it sucked & it was kind of embarrassing. As I was trying to get back up the second time some guy who was running that part felt sorry for me, picked my bike up, & took it all the way up for me. Who says chivalry is dead?! I made sure to tell him thank you. Turns out even when I was running up that thing without my bike I still almost fell. Whoops. Immediately after that we had to go straight down about 15 feet. If there was anyone watching me on my way down I'd be willing to bet they were pretty entertained. I was that awkward. At that point I think I started question why I signed up to do the Muddy Buddy. Clearly biking is not a strength of mine!! Once done with that leg, I passed the bike back to Sue. The obstacle this time was to crawl underneath netting that was horizontal about 1 foot above the ground. After finishing that I took off running - I had another 1.1 miles to go. At the beginning of this leg there was this watery/muddy area, lucky for me I only had to run through it. Sue had to carry the bike through it. That would probably have been another disaster for me! Obstacle 3 was walking the balance beams. That was super easy as well, they were about 4 or 5 feet off the ground and you just had to walk across them. Sue did a really good job of placing our bike. A side note about the bikes ... people like to decorate them too. We didn't really do much, we added some ribbons & tennis balls to the handles. Turns out the tennis balls on the handles were key. No one else had done that so it was really really easy to spot the bike among a lot of bikes. Now back to the course .... I saw the bike immediately and took off. This bike leg was 0.8 miles. It was a lot easier than the first one, the whole ride was flat & followed by downhill. Perfect for me. Once done with that leg, the obstacle was a giant inflatable wall. After climbing up 20 or 30 feet (I'm really not sure) by rope, you climbed over to the other side and slide down. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous right before I went down the slide. But it turned out to be quite fun! I was finally starting the last leg, a 1.9 mile run. At the end of the run we came up onto the Boulder Reservoir, this part of the run was sandy and hard to run in. We ran a little bit on the sand and then had to run through another water patch (in the reservoir). Immediately after that we finished up on the beach and ran through where all the buddies were standing. Sue, Colleen, TJ, & Abbi were all waiting there for Sarah & I so we could go through the mud pit together.

This picture has me in the lead then Sue, Colleen, & Sarah close behind in the pit.

I climbed in & was blazing a trail crawling through it. I was going so fast Sue yelled at me to slow down! After that we ran & crossed the finish line!! We were 18th out of 75 in our division with a time of 55:27. Overall we placed 270. Not too shabby I think. I have no idea how many teams there were, but I did scan the results sheet - the highest I found was 696. So we did pretty well.

Just after we crossed the finish line!!

The group shot - Sue, Me, Abbi, TJ, Sarah, & Collen

After the race was over we rinsed off, went back to the car, changed clothes, & then went back for all the freebies including a nice cold beer.

Here's another group shot minus a couple

If you ever get the chance to do this or something like it, I would totally recommend it. It was a lot of fun & different from just the normal running race. I think that all of my friends would agree that it was an awesome time!

Training

Its been awhile since I've updated the blog, so I thought I would give it a go.

Somehow I was convinced into signing up for the Denver Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon. I think I might have been temporarily insane when I did that. But, since then I've been pretty committed to this training program. Since the beginning of August I've run just over 19 miles. I don't know if I've ever ran that much in my life!! But, soon it will be even more.

My biggest problem with this new found activity is that I absolutely HATE to stretch. Well, hate is a strong word. Its more like I just don't like to do it. There's no real reason behind it, I just don't want to bother with stretching. For some reason I've never been one to stretch when doing physical activity on my own. Growing up when I did some sort of organized activity (volleyball, softball, ballet, etc.) I would stretch, but because it was forced on me. I know that you should always stretch, but I never really did until now. I've been reading a lot of articles about running and I came across one that was about different stretches. I decided to try them. The stretches that I did turned out to be pretty good. I'm not even sure I got half way through them until I found one that I didn't feel anything stretching (OR maybe I was doing it wrong ... this is probably more likely). Once I came across that one I stopped doing the stretches. (I'm making myself feel better about stopping early by saying "Lifestyle changes don't happen over night.") I will say that I found the hip flexor and hip adductor stretches to be awesome. My right hip on occasion feels funny. For lack of a better way to describe it I call it being "ajar" or simply out of place. I have absolutely no idea what the specific trigger is expect its something to do with physical activity. It also likes to pop a lot. I blame all of my hip weirdness on 13 some odd years of ballet. Anyways, now that I've just rambled on and on .... here's the website for the stretches:

http://running.competitor.com/2010/08/features/running-101-stretching_12081

I've always heard that as a runner you should watch for cars because they don't watch for you. I generally try to run on the sidewalk against the flow of traffic. If I'm even unsure that a car doesn't see me I ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS run around the backside. Yesterday was my first encounter with almost getting it by a car. I was lucky enough that the car was stopped to begin with and I was watching out for myself. I don't even think I was half a mile into my run when it happened. It was the Domino's delivery guy as he was leaving Domino's. I thought he had seen me so I started to cross. Turns out I was wrong. I figured this out when he was slowly rolling his car into the intersection. Considering that he was close to hitting me, lets hope that he delivered the pizza in the 30 minutes or less!! Unfortunately for me I saw him turning back into Domino's, thank goodness he beat me with about a block in between us.

Besides all my training I haven't really done my else. I've mostly been rotting my brain by watching too much tv. I'm still trying to catch up on my All My Children. I've just made it to August ... finally.

Some other exciting news ... Todd should be home in less than 1 month!!! And I'm done at work in 41 days (total) with only 25 more of actual working, but who's counting.

Lastly, the Muddy Buddy is this weekend on Sunday. I'm super excited. I should hopefully have some pictures to post!!

Day 1

I haven't completely figured out if this is going to work or not, but I thought I'd give it a shot. Today I completed Day 1 training for running a half marathon. My goal is the run the Denver Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon on October 17th. I'm following Hal Higdon's Half Marathon Training Program for the Novice. The first two weeks are exactly the same. Here's the schedule:

Monday: Stretch & Strengthen

Tuesday: 3 mile Run

Wednesday: 2 mile Run or Cross-training

Thursday: 3+ mile Run & Strengthen

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 30 min. Cross-training

Sunday: 4 mile Run

I'm not really worried about the first two weeks of training. It seems pretty basic. I don't think I'll have any problems with the workouts. Well, I take that back ... I might have a problem with finding the motivation to do the workouts. I'm really hoping that since I have made it a goal to do the half marathon that will be motivation enough.

The one thing that sucks about starting it this week is that its finally Cheyenne Frontier Days!! It also happens to be my last CFD. Ideally I'd like to live it up and get the complete CFD experience, but since I'm starting this training program it might not be such a good idea. Translation .... I might have to cut down on all the carnival food that I planned on eating. Boo. Instead of eating the turkey leg, potato spiral, funnel cake, and drinking many beers I might have to cut out the turkey leg. According to the BestLife program at work the turkey leg ALONE is 1700 calories. Its a shame that those turkey legs are just so dang good!!! BestLife also said that I could eat a potato spiral, funnel cake, and a giant corn dog and still be under the calorie amount of the turkey leg. Too bad I don't like corn dogs enough to eat one on any other day besides National Corn Dog Day. Hopefully I can resist all the temptations of Frontier Days! Keep your fingers crossed!

Adam Towler Memorial 5k

This weekend I ran in my second 5k. It was the Adam Towler Memorial 5k/10k in Laramie, WY. Its put together by my friend Sarah Towler. The run is a memorial to her brother who's life was tragically cut short on Juy 16th, 2006 in Laramie. The race proceeds will benefit the Adam Towler Foundation and the Boston Children's Hospital.

This is not the first time I've participated in this race, last year I walked the 5k. This year is the first time I've actually run it .... and boy did I run it!! I'm not sure the exact number of participants, but I think there was somewhere around 120 or so. I placed 23rd overall and 2nd in my category (female 25-29). I ran it in 27:45!!! I'm pretty excited about it as if you couldn't tell.

Here's me with my 2nd place medal

My next run on the list is the Boulder Muddy Buddy, Aug. 15th. Its a partner run/bike/obstacle course race that covers 7 miles. My partner is Sue (my running buddy from the Super Day 5k). It sounds like we'll see some pretty interesting people in costumes, do some running, some biking, get muddy, and have a ton of fun!!!!

Lastly, I'm not really sure but I think I was possibly persuaded to do a 1/2 marathon in October. It would be the Rock n' Roll Denver Half on October 17th. I'm going to start the training and see how it goes before I decide one way or the other. I'll keep you posted!

My First 5K

Just this past Saturday I ran my first 5K. It was the Cheyenne Super Days 5K/10K. This is not the first 5K I've participated in, but it is the first one I've ran the whole 3.2 miles. My time was 30:57. I have no idea if that is even close to being a decent time and I don't really care either. It just so happens that I ran it with two of my friends, TJ and Sue. Let me correct that last statement, I ran with Sue only since TJ was so far ahead of us. I have to admit that I am quite proud of myself. I realize its only 3.2 miles, but you've got to start somewhere and it just so happens my somewhere is 3.2. To get ready for this thing I've been running anywhere from just over 3 miles to just over 4 miles every other day all around Cheyenne. So far the training has been going pretty good with the exception of today. Its my day to run and quite frankly its just to dang hot to run!!!! Its 6pm and its still 82 outside!!! Since its so hot I've decided that I'm skipping my run tonight and rescheduling for tomorrow morning when its only 70 something degrees outside. In regards to my complaining about the temperature you might say well where I'm at its 90 degrees at 6pm. My response is that sucks even more! But you have to remember I've kind of become spoiled in the summer months while living out here in the west. We do get warmer temperatures, but we only see 90+ degrees maybe one week in the whole summer. By the time the 9pm rolls around you generally need to have a jacket with you to keep you warm from the wind that never stops. I am no longer used to the hot & humid southern heat. I'd much rather have my less hot, dry heat in Cheyenne. If the temperature wasn't enough reason not to run, I do have another reason. It happens to be my friend Liz's birthday & I'm going out to dinner to celebrate. Happy Birthday Liz!!!

As some background information I thought I'd say a bit about why I started running. The main reason is because Todd is Crazy!! He has the crazy idea of wanting to run a marathon once in his life. Now is as good as time as any since we aren't getting any younger! I've told him that I can't commit to a marathon, but I will commit to a half marathon. All this running that I'm doing now is just pre-training. Our plan for now is to start our real training at the beginning of October, run the half marathon in Memphis in December, and run the Mardi Gras Marathon in February. Depending on how the half goes in Memphis I may or may not continue to run. Ideally I would like to do the Mardi Gras half marathon while Todd is doing the full. Well, see how things go .....